Julie Broad explains how to use Advanced Reader Copies to build momentum before launch. Send ARCs six to eight weeks before your book comes out to get early endorsements and reviews. You can be selective with recipients, use NetGalley, or accept that digital copies will leak and focus on getting readers instead.
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Have you ever heard someone say they got an ARC copy of a book? Or maybe you've been researching book promotions and you've heard that arcs are an important part of getting book reviews. Do you know what an ARC is? Even more importantly, do you know why they are so important to the success of your book launch? If you don't, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book Broad. I'm an Amazon Overall Number 1 Best Selling Author and the founder founder of a fabulous company called Book Launchers. Our superpower is caring more about you and your book than anybody else as we help you write, publish and sell a nonfiction book that will boost your brand and make you money. Let's just dive straight into this one, shall we? ARCs are advanced reader copies of a book. Traditionally, they are labeled with an advanced reader copy on the manuscript. This labeling can appear on the COVID on every page, at the top or bottom, or as a watermark, so lightly labeled behind the text. Personally, I don't like watermarking because it impacts the reading experience and you want positive early reviews. So something that annoys them while they're reading might not help with that. Labeling was important in the days before self publishing because in traditional publishing they often sent them out well before they're finalized. These days, a lot of self published authors send ARCs once the book is finalized and they're just in pre launch so they may not label the book at all. And there's some folks that think that's best because then, especially in the case of a print book, the book can be passed on to others after the reviewer is done with it. But not labeling a book as ARC makes some authors nervous, especially if it's an E version of the book, because they fear their book could be copied or sold by unscrupulous people who get their hands on that arc. I'll get to protecting your ARC in a minute, but first let me touch on why arcs are an important part of the book launch process. As we mentioned, advanced reader copies are copies of your book that are out before your launch date. Or whether you label them or not, they're still an arc and you use them to get early endorsements that might go on the COVID And as your launch date gets closer, you're going to use the ARCS to solicit reviews so that you have a bunch of reviews on your launch date or launch week, which is super important to everything you're doing around your book marketing. If you rush your launch date, you'll struggle to get these reviews and you'll be playing catch up after your book is out. So we always recommend that authors, and our clients in particular, allow for six to eight weeks after the book is done for sending out ARCs and building early review momentum before your launch date. But let's go back to the file protection. If you send printed copies, file protection really is a minimal concern. But many times you're going to be sending out electronic copies because it's more efficient and affordable. So here are three things to think about if you're worried about people taking your book and selling it elsewhere when you send it out as an electronic arc. First of all, be selective about who you distribute it to if you're really worried about this, and keep track of everyone who gets a copy which which you should be doing that anyway so you can follow up and ask for the reviews. Number two, you could also use a service like NetGalley for your reviews. They have controls in place for the digital distribution, but this also does limit who you will be able to send it to because all reviewers on the NetGalley system have to be on the NetGalley system. They can do that for free, but they still have to register, which a lot of people won't want to do. Number three, don't worry about it. My perspective is different than some in that I'm more worried about getting people to read my book than I am at trying to keep it safe. So I can make four or five dollars off every copy sold. I want to make money from the book, but if someone steals it and distributes it widely and people actually read it, well, I have calls to action in the book so they'll connect with me and then they connect with me and voila. I have a potential client or a new newsletter subscriber and someone else did the hard work of finding that reader for me. So I'm not going to stress it. In fact, if someone wants to distribute my book so widely, it hurts my sales, but I get a bunch of new readers, I'm actually all for it. But that's so unlikely to happen unless you're a huge name author with a widely anticipated book. When that's the yes, you need to take a lot of extra measures to protect your book. But let's face it, I'm a book broad with a wonderful family of YouTube besties, but I'm not J.K. rowling or Margaret Atwood. But speaking of YouTube besties, if you like this video, smash that thumbs up button and make sure you've subscribed to the channel and turn the notifications on so we can hang out in the comments after a video comes out and when you comment the day a video is released, which is every Tuesday and Friday except in the summer when I take a break, you'll be one step closer to becoming one of my beloved YouTube besties and you'll also be entered to win some sweet noboringbooks swag like this noboringbooks mug. So go ahead, smash that thumbs up button and then post a comment below. Just say hello and let us know what book project you're working on right now. And since it's been such a delight to be with you today, I'd like to invite you over to this video on who to ask for your Amazon reviews. You know those people you might send an ARC copy 2 now that you know what an ARC is, or this video right here, which YouTube thinks you really will enjoy. Either way, I'm waiting excitedly to see you again.
